CCL Playoff: UChicago Sweeps #1 Seed SLU

UChicago Sweeps Saint Louis University 6.5 – 9.5

In a comeback story of biblical proportions, the University of Chicago utterly crushed Saint Louis University 6.5-9.5 in the quarterfinals of the Collegiate Chess League. “Uneasy lies the head that wears the Crown,” as King Henry IV bemoans – and yet, against all odds, restless, battered, and facing the goliath in Collegiate Chess – UChicago claimed victory.

How is it possible? We knew from the onset that it would be no easy task. Saint Louis University needs no introduction: fresh off a victory at not only the Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship but also the Final Four President’s Cup, SLU has made a name for themselves as arguably the top college program in the world. Indeed, it is difficult to compete against top notch scholarship teams, and SLU is perfectly situated in the chess capital of the world.

The match score itself suggests a truly fantastical comeback. Very rarely has a team won after being down in the series. This is beyond Lebron James’ 2016 historical 3-1 comeback; nay, it would be more akin to if he came back down 4-1. Truly special. Unrivaled. Unmatched. Unprecedented.

History records just a few times that this has happened. In 2022, the Avengers came back to defeat Thanos after losing half of the universe’s population, successfully gathering the six infinity stones and reversing the snap. After nearly a year of exile, Napoleon Bonaparte returned from exile in Elba to command a French army of more than a quarter million.

And around 33 AD, Jesus of Nazareth came back after being entombed for three days – drawing parallels to UChicago’s own three-point deficit.

Let’s look round by round to see how the battle unfolded:

Round 1: 2-2

The match started off balanced, with both Praveen and I delivering wins on SLU’s bottom two boards, and SLU winning on the top two boards. My path to victory was slightly less than smooth as I struggled through a lost middlegame position only to hang a clean bishop in the endgame. Overall, it was a sign of things to come: against stronger opposition, I would not be so lucky.

Praveen, on the other hand, essayed the risky Schliemann defense and scored a critical victory against SLU’s board 3, Robby Kevlishvili, who at 2957 blitz rating on chess.com was higher than all four of the players on UChicago’s team.

Round 2: 3.5 – 4.5

SLU managed to win this round 2.5-1.5, with Niko Theodorou capitalizing on some powerful play to defeat William Graif. Praveen enacted revenge for his notorious Pan-Ams loss by defeating Gabriela Antova. Indeed, a crucial part of our victory was holding SLU’s board four to zero points.

However, with my loss to Kevlishvili, we were continuing to lose ground against SLU’s 3-GM lineup.

Round 3: 4.5 – 7.5

Things began to look grim as I lost a second consecutive game against Cemil Can Ali Marandi, whose accurate play throughout the match was as extraordinary as it was unbelievable. After making a simple miscalculation, I blundered the exchange and the game went downhill from there.

On the other hand, William Graif continued to keep our hopes alive by defeating Antova with a nice checkmate.

Round 4: 6.5 – 9.5

Knowing that we would have to sweep to have any chance of winning the match, the UChicago team made a valiant effort to keep our chances alive. Alas, SLU was unfortunately too strong on the day of. Nevertheless, a solid 2-2 tie still showed that we were not completely outclassed in this match. In particular, I missed a nice opportunity against Theodorou that could have put him under strong pressure.

Finally, Kapil defeated Antova in a sharp Sicilian. Rumor has it that Kapil orchestrated the entire comeback from behind the scenes, secretly summoning the math Gods to quickly swap a few numbers. We start each chess club meeting with a prayer to Kapil's soul and sincerely thank his brave sacrifice.

Semi-Finals!

With this crushing win against Saint Louis University, UChicago moves on to the semi-finals to face off against Yale. The University of Chicago is proud to be just the second team to win in such a fashion: the first being, of course, the Saint Louis Archbishops who in 2020 defeated the Armenian Eagles with the exact same score line of 6.5-9.5. History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

Stay tuned for future updates!